Yahoo Gets Inspiration From Now This News

On Wednesday morning, Yahoo published this piece on Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.). The headline is “What is it like to be a Muslim in Congress?” It’s no secret that Ellison is one of the only two Muslims in the U.S. Congress. The other is Andre Carson (D-Ind.). He’s an interesting character. Young, extremely liberal, African-American, and he’s in the middle of Ramadan. During the holiday, observing Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, which can be a drain on Ellison. He tells Yahoo that he limits his physical activity during the day while celebrating the month.

On top of all that, he plays guitar. Yahoo made sure to get video of Ellison jamming in his office. While he cranks out a little “This Land is Your Land,” ABC’s Jeff Zeleny, who conducts the interview, awkwardly watches on.

It’s rare that we get to see members of Congress cut loose like this so, it’s refreshing. Except for Yahoo, this isn’t such an original idea.

Ealier in the month, Now This News sat down with Ellison and he jammed some blues with their reporter, Ashley Codianni. We’ve put the video below. Hmmm… was Yahoo paying homage to this video? Or just ripping it off? It’s a painfully similar idea for a web video. The main difference is that Codianni actually sang with Ellison, while Zeleny stared at him blankly after he was invited to sing along.

We reached out to Codianni, who tells FBDC, “We should all start a band together, when does practice start?”

Start warming up the pipes, Mr. Zeleny. I smell a supergroup in the works.

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